To live bait or not to live bait
Submitted by old salt on Thu, 2011-03-17 08:39
Hey fellas,
Is live baiting worth the effort when you are targetting bread and butter species like salmon or tailor particularly when they are clearly visible and shy? Or are the results virtually the same as using popular dead baits?
If any of you do live bait how and where do get them? With a cast net I presume and do you need a license to catch them from shore?
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I fish to feed 
and
Fillet and release when applicable 
hlokk
Posts: 4290
Date Joined: 04/04/08
For salmon and dollies i've
For salmon and dollies i've certainly had them where they would touch a live bait but not a dead bait. Salmon usually arent that fussy though, so its rarely needed. I've just used live herring or yellow tail (catch using a sabiki rig or similiar)
mannablue
Posts: 106
Date Joined: 24/02/11
When they're not hitting
When they're not hitting anything you throw at them but you know they're there...yes!
Last season went salmon fishing metro with a mate, he uses livies quite a lot with great success, outfishes my lures and deadbaits easy. Not only was he scoring salmon but big tailor too, cheeky bugger!
Fishing livies for mulla's a few months back we had a couple monstered by XOS tailor again...
Seems to work better on the larger of the species and baits were caught on hook n line at the spots we were fishing.
Agree with hlokk tho, generally not needed unless the fish are very fussy or your wanting the largest of the species.
Not all who wander are lost...
nightfish
Posts: 327
Date Joined: 18/10/10
Livebait
As said above, fishing for salmon I have had not a lure or bait touched but throw a livie (herring or whiting) and its nailed instantly. I always take a small rig when beach fishing to catch a live bait. Then I can fish a dead bait or lure on the mid sized rod and a livie on the big rod to cover bases. Sometimes those xos salmon and tailor will get excited and hit so you can end up with a better fish.
Hope it helps
buschy
Posts: 626
Date Joined: 27/11/09
For tailor
One thing I have noticed on the odd occasion I have managed to get into a decent school of tailor, the largest of the fish caught has always been on a livebait (normally live herring with 2x snell). The other half a dozen or so fish caught on mulies have always been noticeably smaller. And the first hit seems to be on the live bait rather than the dead bait...so I'm assuming that can help attract the school?
joe amato
Posts: 731
Date Joined: 21/12/08
i have caught bigger tailor on live tailor in the past
i have caught bigger tailor on live tailor,while live baiting for mulloway a while back,i never thought tailor were cannibals
old salt
Posts: 133
Date Joined: 25/02/11
Tailor are definitelly
Tailor are definitelly cannibals they eat anything that resembles a fish. Thanks all for the replies when i move over there next month I will be aiming to catch some some livies prior to going fishing. i think youre right they would attract schools of fish and larger fish particularly if the livie is a decent size
I know up here in the NT if you're not fishing with live bait your more than halving your chances of coming home with a feed and seeing as though Perth has the super aggressive toothy tailor in numbers I'm hoping fishing livies will double my chances of catching two decent fish each time. One for baking in the oven and the other smoked
I fish to feed
and
Fillet and release when applicable